Christmas gatherings other than Christmas Day?

[GooseyGandalf]

I have the pils for Christmas Day, and will also host meals for my extended family, his extended family, and some of our friends.

Christmas Day is straightforward as it runs to a formula - turkey, ham, crackers to pull, gifts etc.

I’m planning the other days - the family ones will be a semi formal meal, the friends a less formal meal and more drinking. I’m trying to decide on drinks to serve, whether to have crackers each time or party favours, playlists etc.

Anyone else party planning?

Yes. Will host several friend/family of friends get togethers between Christmas and new year. I'm telling myself to keep it simple.

Plan to do raclette one night, and fondue chinoise the other. (I will have already done three cheese fondue evenings out before Christmas, so I have to restrict a bit 😅).

All super easy because you just prepare things on plates for raclette, and aside from the broth and boiling potatoes it's super stress free.

If I'm feeling adventurous ill do figs stuffed with blue cheese wrapped in bacon as a starter, served on a rocket, cucumber and pear salad with a balsamic honey dressing. Always goes down well here.

For drinks we usually do one of Nigellas Christmas cocktails to begin, or negroni. Then I like to have some artisnal French cider in the fridge to serve with the meal, or beers.

One evening with my exs parents visiting from Spain (we are all still good friends) and they love an Irish stew with dumplings and brioche bread and butter pudding, so I'll do that again for them. They usually bring a nice few bottles of red with them, or have a few beers, so that's sorted.

@Tomatocutwithazigzagedge that sounds really lovely.

We’ve got friends coming over on 21st. We’ll be having mince pies, ham and cheese as DH, DS, their DD and I will have been at the pantomime that afternoon.

It's never too early to crack open the mince pies!

You have a point @Tomatocutwithazigzagedge but I’d eat too many that way. I’m cracking them open on 1st December.

We have all the wider family descending for a party in early December, but happily most of them are excellent cooks and we do a pot-luck type of thing where everyone brings a dish, often curry/noodles/rice/salads. I'll probably make crispy roast duck.

We're also hosting NYE. We'll do canapés etc, and I'm thinking of doing slow roast pork to have a hog roast later in the evening with bread rolls/ stuffing/ apple sauce etc in an attempt to soak up a bit of alcohol and save everyone's heads on new year's morning.

Love reading this for inspiration. If you were taking guests to the pub what would you want to come back to?! Feeling stuck. No slow cooker sadly. Thank you wise hosts!

How long will you be in the pub for? A slow pot roast is delicious if you eat meat. There are loads of dishes that require a long cook in a low oven: a low setting used to be called a slow oven setting.

Lots of things taste better after a bit of time for the flavours to get to know each other e.g. ragu for bolognese, chilli, curry, coq au vin or a rich stew or tagine. So you could cook that in advance then when you get back from the pub heat it up while cooking pasta/rice and maybe garlic bread or naan and making a quick salad.

I'd say curry in a casserole ready to just be heated up with microwave rice and pickles, chilli, raita etc. maybe some naan to shove in the oven. Tasty and essentially no effort for you.

We’re hosting on boxing day this year but I wasn’t going to go all out fancy. In fact we’ll probably just treat everyone to a takeaway.. can’t really be bothered to have to cook another big meal so close to Christmas and I think everyone will still be feeling over indulged from the day before anyway.
We hosted a big party last new year and did a large joint of pulled pork, a whole lightly smoked salmon and other party nibbles including Delia’s mini cheese and onion scones.